PC Tech Thread

Would like an "always on" Linux machine for home. Currently have a work laptop, personal laptop, VMWare ESXi machine, NAS (QNAP TS431-P).

I want to be able to run a few things all the time:

• Needs USB to have the ConBee II Zigbee USB stick so I can pull data from various Zigbee devices (mostly temp/humidity sensors)
  
• Plus a few Linux docker images for other things (Prometheus exporters for Broadband stats gathering, Zigbee stuff, etc)
  
  

Neither laptop is going to be "always on" as they may get taken away with me some times.

Not happy with the reliability of the ESXi machine, mainly because I'm not an ESXi admin and it's a ~6 year old i5 and its on a relatively old version of ESXi. Replacing it quickly would be a pain. The VMs I run on the ESXi box don't matter if they're not running 100% of the time.

QNAP NAS can run things but it's an Annapurna Labs Alpine AL212 Dual-Core ARM chip, so doesn't run all Linux/docker images as an x86 based thing would. It's also only 4-bay and a little slow so I wouldn't mind replacing it with a faster 8-bay thing.

Doesn't need any display or anything on it. Just want to connect to it remotely.

Choices:-

a) Intel NUC type thing, can probably get by with 8GB RAM and a 128GB SSD (which I have spare).
b) Raspberry Pi, have a few spare but they're quite fragile (even in a case) and feel "temporary", plus not x86
c) Upgrade the NAS to an x86 based thing where it can also run docker/linux images

Leaning towards (c) as I want fewer devices and so however nice a NUC is it would be yet another bloody thing.

Any other ideas?

Any particular make of NAS? Synology?

OK, think I've settled on a Synology DiskStation DS1621+ 6 bay thing, will also need to spend ~£160 upgrading it to 32GB RAM (which gives me much more room for a few VMs on it). I'll punt the old QNAP to lessen the upgrade cost.

That allows me to have 4 drives for my existing backup array, plus two bays free if I ever want a larger scratch area. Any more than that (I doubt I'll ever need it) and I can attach another 5 (or 10) drives using the DX517 expansion unit(s).

(Have a 2-4 week cooling off period for purchases like this, just in case I think up something better...)

Since it has the capacity I'd highly recommend using an SSD for the OS. Obviously makes things a whole lot snappier and quieter.

Notice it has NVMe support, but that's only useable as a cache as far as I can tell.

Think I'm going to have to go for a RPi solution for the Zigbee stuff as moving things to where the NAS sits and I can't pick up the sensors on the far side of the flat. I'll have to put a RPi near the middle of the flat (which is easy enough).

I can put the NAS upgrade on hold for now as it is less important.

Ah, even easier, I can flash my Sonoff Zigbee Bridge with Tasmota and use that instead. I know that works from where it was sat before, but using Tasmota means I can connect MQTT directly and avoid everything going to the cloud (where it's still tricky to scrape).

Also means I don't have to keep yet another device (RPi) patched and up to date.

Luckily I have the hardware required to flash ESP82xx type things already.

Powered ZigBee stuff works as a repeater so you can stick in a plug or a bulb or something in between.

When I looked at NASs I found building a PC in a case with loads of storage options was still cheaper and considerably more powerful. Power consumption on idle isn't that different, maybe 5 watts.

I'm just getting my head around our new laptop setup.
Windows home doesn't have bit locker.
After some mild swearing I've managed to suss that it doesn't meet the requirements to encrypt the hard drive.
What are my options now?
I'm guessing at a: upgrade to pro b: some third party encryption?

Getting a Pro license off ebay is probably easiest.

Good idea, thankyou

Some help please. My daughter wants to play a game that is only available on Android and we don't have anything that runs it (other than phones which wouldn't be practical). If I want to use my PC (windows 10), is using blue stack X the best way to go? If I understand it right, we can stream the game though that without having to download anything?

I think you still need to download and install Bluestack X. Some games it will stream, some it will download and install.

Why is it not practical on phones? You can put them in kid mode if you don't want anything else accessed.

Ta. Not practical on a phone in that I don't think I'd get it back off her when I wanted to use it!

Gameloop has been suggested to me as an alternative to bluestacksX so I'll look at that as well but I'll install it is I need too.

Not a hardware thing but Spam.

How can you use GMail blockers to get rid of 'Via' Spam? I'm getting a lot of spam but blocking the senders doesn't work as they continually change email address.

The consistent thing is 'via sendgrid.info' (See screenshot). How do I block sendgrid.info?

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The "via" naming convention in Gmail means that sendgrid.info was used as the Mail From / Envelope Sender domain, changepromo.de being the Header From in the above example (this happens when you use Sendgrid without setting custom domain authentication; see also sendgrid.net, or are using Sendgrid to maliciously spoof a domain). There is a a rule you can set to block all messages with a similar format (which will also include some legit messages from people who just haven't set up custom authentication in their Sendgrid platform). But, not all spam will come from Sendgrid.

I will look when on my laptop what the rule settings are in Gmail that would do this.

I've found reporting stuff like that as spam seems to train their filters to stop letting them through after a few attempts.

Sendgrid is part of the mail sending cabal, there's no way Google are going to block them (or any part of them).

Anyone sending things through Sendgrid is considered trusted - which is why the entire thing is fucked.

I checked and Gmail only allows filters on the Header From, not the Mail From. As @HatBeard says, just keep reporting as Spam and you might see some improvement on the heuristic filters.

@Greenbank Sendgrid are less of an issue than they used to be since they brought in two factor. It used to be that high reputation, compromised accounts were rife with phishing, so were hard to spot/block using heuristic means. Since the change, only the crappy freebie instances are really being used, which come with low/minimal reputation and most filters will block most attacks. But, as good as Google is a lot of the time, they will make a change somewhere and overnight you'll get flooded. Complain and then at some point they'll issue a silent fix and say "what are you talking about, I see no issue". I have one client where they are actively allowing spoofing of a protected domain from a very specific .cz anonymous mailer tool to Gmail accounts. Told them about it and they just said, "yeah, that's intentional". Fuckers.

I have a really weird use case. I essentially want a laptop thin client I can use to access a remote Linux machine running Citrix.
This probably rules out actual thin clients because our Citrix admins will just make breaking changes all the time or I'll need access to credentials I don't have etc.

So really I'm thinking something like a Chromebook which can have at least 2 external monitors but which is lightweight and portable with a decent battery (monitors would stay at home).

Most of my day is spent with a full screen terminal window, a chat client, email and a web browser.
Zoom I can use over Citrix well enough even though the tech sucks.

At the moment I use a company Windows laptop which is fine but it's got so much corporate spyware it'll drain the battery in an hour because the CPU is running hot all the time even when idle and the SSD runs at modem speeds.

I might try something with my Pi400 I guess, but without an embedded screen and built in battery you end up with 3 things to carry around, plus a mouse

Why not try thinstation or wyse client on an old laptop?

I rolled wyse client out onto about 4,000 PCs for Citrix access and it worked out well. Low spec machines handled it very well. The big caveat is that this was in 2015 and I have no idea if those products still exist or if they are still free.

I have no doubt that there are a few free citrix client OS images available if wyse or thinstation aren't an option any more.

Most of my day is spent with a full screen terminal window, a chat client, email and a web browser.

These are via Citrix?

Yep. Everything is remote.

I guess I'd need to figure out the auth dance. It's all Citrix FAS nonsense which I've only got limited visibility into. There are Dell hardware Wyse clients in the office (which I might be able to steal config from) and some have been handed out to people at home too but I really want a laptop form factor.

Thinstation looks interesting, good shout.

Thinstation looks interesting, good shout.

Not sure it works with FSA but I'm certain there will be a free distro that does

This is very satisfying.

Replaced the last remaining HDD for SSD yesterday and the only thing moving in it right now is the water pump. Just ran Cinebench for 10 mins and the fans only became slightly audible towards the end.

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Nice.

My story today is a bit more painful. I have a TUF GAMING x570 wi-fi plus motherboard, and a 5600x AMD CPU. But... The BIOS shipped by the motherboard is too old, and so the Asus QLED light, the yellow one for DRAM, is permanently on and I cannot even get to POST or BIOS.

Turns out you need to upgrade the BIOS before putting this CPU in, but to do that you first need a lower spec CPU 🤦

I've just spent hours thinking the RAM was faulty, and it's just an old BIOS on a new motherboard.